Category: Advice

TLDR: I love writing adventures, and I want to create more of them, more often. I intend to keep posting them on this very website! If you’d like to help me do that, you can now go to Patreon.com/jbinc to give a little something for each new adventure.

As you probably know, I’ve released a few PDFs on DTRPG. This was pretty fun! I was creating something that I found genuinely delightful and what’s more, getting paid to do it.

The first project (I’m on a Boat!) was a fun experiment that got some very kind, positive feedback. Shadows of Umberto was bigger, more beautiful and exceeded my expectations of success. As I started writing my third PDF, I really wanted to make sure it would be bigger and better. I wanted to beat the records on my third one. I wanted it to be my magnum opus, my big hit.

And I’ll be honest – putting that pressure on myself made it harder to write. And the less I wrote, the more ashamed I got about writing more. I intended to put a new product out each month… three months went by, and I’d not published anything new.

“Bugger,” I thought.

Enter Patreon

I’d heard of Patreon back in the summer, and ultimately decided against it. At the time, I was content to try selling the “old-fashioned way”, to prove to myself I could do it if nothing else.

But over Christmas, while worrying over my next PDF, I read Epidiah Ravachol’s excellent blog post extolling the benefits of Patreon for people just like me. I did some more research and found a talk Jack Conte, the co-founder of Patreon gave last October – talking about how Patreon was built to stop creators like me from worrying less about “the big hits” and get rewarded for creating ongoing great content instead. I did a bit more thinking, got some help and feedback from my friends, and well… here we are. If I was creating a single, grand supplement (like the excellent Grim World or Inverse World) I’d do what those guys did and use kickstarter. But since this is a more of a ‘little and often’ approach, Patreon seems more appropriate.

So I will be writing more Dungeon World adventures and mini-supplements – 2-3 a month is the target. Whatever I create will be posted here to download, free for personal use, whether you pledge something on Patreon or not – but if you do give a little something towards my coffee and internet bills, there’s some cheeky rewards available. Plus, when I reach certain payment milestones, I’ll be creating some extra-special bonus material to celebrate!

To find out more or sign up, check out the patreon page at patreon.com/jbinc. And, in advance – thank you for your support. Even if you only donate a cent, it shows you’re willing to support what I do and that really does mean a lot to me.